Residents, taxpayers and peace groups agree that taxdollars should not subsidize huge weapons manufacturer
When: 9:30am, Monday, March 8 Who: CENTS—Coalition to End Needless Tax Subsidies Where: Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington DC What: Press conference re Northrop Grumman Coming to DC, then join us
in testifying before the Committee on Finance and Revenue at 10:00AM in
room 120 of the Wilson Building.
While the District of Columbia is facing a budget shortfall of hundreds
of millions of dollars and cutting essential services, the DC Council
is offering $25 million in tax abatements and grants to lure defense
contractor Northrop Grumman to the district. This is part of a bidding
war between DC, Virginia and Maryland, a bidding war that Washington
Post business writer Steven Pearlstein called “loony.”
Small business owners are incensed that scarce taxdollars are being
offered to a Fortune 100 company with $34 billion in revenue. “Small
businesses, the engine of our city's economy, are struggling to pay
their taxes and secure loans—and many are going out of business,” says
Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal, who employs 250 people—most of
whom are district residents. “The city should be giving priority to
small businesses, not to huge corporations that don't need the help.”
The corporate giveaway—championed by Councilmember Jack Evans and Mayor
Fenty—does not come with any analysis of the benefits for the city, nor
any comparison of what the funds invested elsewhere could generate.
“With unemployment at crisis levels of over 12 percent citywide, the
city needs jobs,” says Trisha Clauson, director of Think Local First
DC, which represents 160 DC small and local businesses. “It is small
businesses that can generate more jobs and support a locally-driven
economy where money stays in the community.”
Opposition to the project is also coming from the city's peace
community, who see Northrop Grumman as a major war profiteer. “Northrop
Grumman wants to be closer to the nation's lawmakers so it can lobby
for more war funds,” said Medea Benjamin with CODEPINK: Women for
Peace. “The district, whose residents are overwhelmingly pro-peace,
should not be subsidizing a huge defense contractor that profits from
war. That's why we're building a broad-based coalition to oppose this
plan.”
Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy adds that Northrop
Grumman has not been a good steward of public funds. “It has had to pay
hundreds of millions in fines for overbilling the government and
knowingly using defective parts,” said Cray. “It would be scandalous to
give DC taxdollars to a company with such a long record of waste, fraud
and abuse.”
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